Weill Hall At Sonoma State University's Green Music Center Announces 2016-17 Fifth Anniversary Season, Today

Weill Hall at Sonoma State University's Green Music Center (GMC) announces plans for the 2016-17 Fifth Anniversary Season Opening Weekend. The opening night performance Saturday, October 1, at 7:00 p.m., features the unparalleled kings of Jazz, Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis. A Gala Dinner will be held at Prelude Restaurant and Patio following the concert, with cuisine provided by Stark & Co. Catering.

The opening night concert is preceded by a free Jazz for Young People event, also featuring the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, Saturday, October 1, at 1:00 p.m. The following evening, Sunday, October 2, at 7:00 p.m., in celebration of her 85th birthday, Omara Portuondo - along with Roberto Fonseca, Anat Cohen, and Regina Carter - presents an enchanting evening of Latin jazz and balladry.

2016-17 Opening Night Performance by Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra
featuring Wynton Marsalis, Saturday, October 1, 2016

5th Anniversary Season Opening Gala - Saturday, October 1, 2016

6:15pm - Gala Guests check-in

7:00pm - Gala Concert featuring Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis at Weilll Hall
Post-Concert - Gala Dinner on Prelude & Patio

Attire - Wine Country Festive

Cuisine provided by Stark & Co Catering

Wine Sponsors: Flanagan Wines, Hughes Family Vineyards, Iron Horse, Trione Vineyards, and Tuck Beckstoffer Wines

Concert Sponsor: Bank of America

Generous Supporters: MasterCard, Brookfield Residential

The performance starts at 7:00 p.m. and features the formidable Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis. Following the performance, dinner is provided by Stark and Co. Catering, a celebrated local company and staple of elevated Sonoma County cuisine.

2016-17 Opening Weekend Events

Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra Jazz for Young People Concert- Saturday, October 1, 2016, 1:00 p.m.

The Green Music Center will host a free Jazz for Young People concert, titled "Who is Duke Ellington", Saturday, October 1, at 1:00 p.m. Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra featuring Wynton Marsalis will introduce local youth of all ages to the wonderful life of jazz legend Duke Ellington. The hour-long, youth-oriented event is interactive and celebrates Ellington's legacy as a composer, leader, and vanguard of American music. The event is part of the GMC's ongoing initiatives towards community outreach and education. To request tickets, contact Christine Jossey via email:jossey@sonoma.edu. (Please provide name, mailing address, telephone, and number of tickets requested.)

Omara Portuondo 85 tour - Sunday, October 2, 2016, 7:00 p.m.

Join us as we celebrate Omara's 85th anniversary and 70 years of performing professionally, performing much loved Cuban classics from 'Besame Mucho' to 'Veinte Años'. The performance reflects the long journey of her stellar career, taking the audience back to her younger years and her continuing love of elegant cabaret, from the Buena Vista days up to the present with different tastes and flavors, of what will be a musical feast. Joined by the amazing gifted Cuban pianist Roberto Fonseca, clarinetist, saxophonist Anat Cohen, and violinist Regina Carter, the artists will perform timeless Cuban classics as well as songs from their own repertoire.

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MasterCard is the Preferred Card of the Green Music Center

Bank of America is the proud sponsor of the Opening Night Concert featuring
Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis

The Press Democrat is the Media Sponsor of the Green Music Center

Breguet is the Official Timepiece of the Green Music Center

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TICKETS and BOX OFFICE INFORMATION

Single tickets for the Opening Night performance by Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra featuring Wynton Marsalis are priced between $50 and $110. Single tickets for Omara Portuondo 85 Tour are priced between $40 and $95.

*Tickets for the Season Opening Gala are not required to attend the opening night performance.

For tickets, call 1.866.6040 or visit us online at gmc.sonoma.edu.

The Box Office is open Monday-Friday, 10:00 a.m. -6:00 p.m., and two hours prior to all concerts.

Tickets, tables, and sponsorship opportunities for the 2016-17 Season Opening Gala are sold out.

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2016-17 Weill Hall Opening Night Gala Benefit Committee:

Joan & Sandy Weill (Chairs)

Alice Chiang & Victor Lacombe

Judy & Rich Guggenhime

Cherie & Keith Hughes

Susan & Tor Kenward

Janet & Bill Lamkin

Karen & John Ryan

Artists

The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra (Oct. 1), comprising 15 of the finest jazz soloists and ensemble players today, has been the Jazz at Lincoln Center resident orchestra since 1988. Featured in all aspects of Jazz at Lincoln Center's programming, this remarkably versatile orchestra performs and leads educational events in New York, across the U.S. and around the globe; in concert halls; dance venues; jazz clubs; public parks; and with symphony orchestras; ballet troupes; local students; and an ever-expanding roster of guest artists. Under Music Director Wynton Marsalis, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra performs a vast repertoire, from rare historic compositions to Jazz at Lincoln Center-commissioned works, including compositions and arrangements by Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Fletcher Henderson, Thelonious Monk, Mary Lou Williams, Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Goodman, Charles Mingus, and many others.

Education is a major part of Jazz at Lincoln Center's mission; its educational activities are coordinated with concert and Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra tour programming. These programs, many of which feature Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra members, include the celebrated Jazz for Young PeopleTMfamily concert series; the Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition & Festival; the Jazz for Young PeopleTMCurriculum; educational residencies; workshops; and concerts for students and adults worldwide. Jazz at Lincoln Center educational programs reach over 110,000 students, teachers and general audience members. Jazz at Lincoln Center, NPR Music and WBGO have partnered to create the next generation of jazz programming in public radio: Jazz Night in America. The series showcases today's vital jazz scene while also underscoring the genre's storied history. Hosted by bassist Christian McBride, the program features hand-picked performances from across the country, woven with the colorful stories of the artists behind them. Jazz Night in America and Jazz at Lincoln Center's radio archive can be found at jazz.org/radio.

Wynton Marsalis is the Managing and Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. Born in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1961, Mr. Marsalis began his classical training on trumpet at age 12 and soon began playing in local bands of diverse genres. He entered The Juilliard School at age 17 and joined Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. Mr. Marsalis made his recording debut as a leader in 1982, and has since recorded more than 70 jazz and classical albums which have garnered him nine GRAMMY® Awards.

Mr. Marsalis has also written and is the host of the video series "Marsalis on Music" and the radio series Making the Music. He has also written six books: Sweet Swing Blues on the Road, in collaboration with photographer Frank Stewart; Jazz in the Bittersweet Blues of Life, with Carl Vigeland; To a Young Musician: Letters from the Road, with Selwyn Seyfu Hinds; Squeak, Rumble, Whomp! Whomp! Whomp!,illustrated by Paul Rogers, published in 2012; and Moving to Higher Ground: How Jazz Can Change Your Life, with Geoffrey C. Ward, published by Random House in 2008. In October 2005, Candlewick Press released Marsalis' Jazz ABZ: An A to Z Collection of Jazz Portraits, 26 poems celebrating jazz greats, illustrated by poster artist Paul Rogers.

In 2001, Mr. Marsalis was appointed Messenger of Peace by Mr. Kofi Annan, former Secretary-General of the United Nations; he has also been designated cultural ambassador to the United States of America by the U.S. State Department through their CultureConnect program. Mr. Marsalis was instrumental in the Higher Ground Hurricane Relief concert, produced by Jazz at Lincoln Center, which raised over $3 million for the Higher Ground Relief Fund to benefit the musicians, music industry related enterprises, and other individuals and entities from the areas in Greater New Orleans who were impacted by Hurricane Katrina. He led the effort to construct Jazz at Lincoln Center's new home-Frederick P. Rose Hall-the first education, performance, and broadcast facility devoted to jazz, which opened in October 2004.

With her passionate performances and charisma, Omara Portuondo (Oct. 2) has been Cuba's musical sweetheart for more than half a century. As the only female member of the Buena Vista Social Club™, Portuondo transcended the landmark album and film with two Grammy Award nominated records of her own, all while continuing to enchant audiences around the globe with her effervescence and timeless charm. "It is the simple and profound things -life, love - that inspire me most, she says. "Singing energizes me, and with this energy, I can introduce my culture and my roots to the world. Music is a part of nature, and a huge part of my life." Now following a hugely successful sold-out 2015 "Adios" tour with Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club including a historic performance at the White House, Omara tours in the Summer of 2016 with long-time band mate Eliades Ochao. Then, in celebration of her 85 energetic years, Omara will tour in the Fall, 2016 with special guests Roberto Fonseca, Anat Cohen, and Regina Carter, bringing her rich, soulful brand of jazz and balladry to live audiences in the United States.

OPENING WEEKEND GALA DINNER

About Stark & Co. Catering

Mark & Terri Stark - 2013 James Beard Award Semifinalists for Best Restaurateur

For Mark and Terri Stark, following their passion has placed them squarely on the fast track to success. The Starks have used their passions for great food combined with great fun to create unique and thriving restaurants. The couple's Stark Reality Restaurant group consists of five highly rated dining spots in Sonoma County, California: Willi's Wine Bar (2002), Monti's Rotisserie (2004), and Stark's Steak & Seafood (2008) in Santa Rosa and Willi's Seafood (2003) and Bravas Bar de Tapas (2012) in Healdsburg.

About Gala Benefit Committee Co-Chairs Joan & Sandy Weill

Joan H. Weill is a tireless supporter of cultural, philanthropic and civic endeavors, Joan H. Weill commits a great deal of her life to public service and education. Mrs. Weill is Chair Emerita of Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation, having joined the Board in 1994 and served as Chair from 2000 until January 1, 2015. Mrs. Weill is widely acknowledged as a driving force in the growth of the entire Ailey organization over the past two decades.

Sanford I. Weill is Chairman Emeritus of Citigroup and is also Chairman of Hamilton Insurance Group. He retired as CEO of Citigroup on October 1, 2003, and served as non-executive Chairman until April 18, 2006.On April 29, 2014, Mr. Weill was named a member of CNBC's First 25: top rebels, icons and leaders, a definitive list of 25 people around the world who have had the greatest influence, sparked the biggest changes and caused the most disruption in business over the past quarter century.

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About the Green Music Center
Nestled in the picturesque foothills of Northern California's esteemed wine country, the Green Music Center (GMC) is a focal point for arts in the region, with its spectacular 1400-seat Weill Hall, an acoustically exceptional venue with a modular rear wall that opens to terraced lawn seating, providing picturesque views of the surrounding countryside, and the 240-seat Schroeder Hall, a cathedral-like recital hall designed specifically to accentuate instruments, organ and voice in a small, intimate setting. A program of Sonoma State University, the GMC presents year-round programming of top classical, contemporary, jazz and world music artists through the MasterCard Performance Series and is home to the Santa Rosa Symphony.

About Sonoma State University
Sonoma State University is a public liberal arts college located in California's premier wine country, one hour north of San Francisco. Nestled at the base of the idyllic Sonoma Mountains, the campus is home to more than 9,000 undergraduate students and is among the most popular campuses in the California State University system. Named a "Most Wired" campus by The Princeton Review and a "Best Regional University" by U.S. News & World Report, SSU was first in the country to offer an undergraduate degree in Wine Business.